Throw Out the Ashtrays

The case for bar and restaurant smoking bans gets even stronger.

LAST WEEK the surgeon general's office issued its first exhaustive report in 20 years on the dangers of inhaling your date's cigarette fumes. The study confirmed everything we already knew and a lot of what we previously thought about secondhand smoke. It causes lung cancer and coronary heart disease -- those regularly exposed have up to a 30 percent higher chance of getting either of these terminal illnesses. Pregnant waitresses or bartenders working smoke-filled shifts can expect their babies to weigh less at birth. And cigarette smoke -- whether exhaled or snaking off a smoldering butt -- is plain unpleasant, triggering nasal irritation.

The report also concluded that air-cleaning appliances and separate indoor ventilation systems for smoking and nonsmoking areas can't protect patrons from secondhand smoke. Smoking bans in restaurants and bars, on the other hand, significantly reduce or eliminate the problem. Even when enforcement is lax, the study says that exposure to harmful particulates and chemicals is "several orders of magnitude" lower in regions that have bans in place than those that don't.

So the evidence continues to pile up: Not only do smoking bans work but Americans also desperately need them.

Talk of smoking bans tends to ruffle feathers in places such as Virginia, where the state's House of Delegates rejected a smoking ban for public workplaces in February. A Maryland House committee declined similar legislation on the same day, though many of that state's counties have passed their own restrictions. Both legislatures should reconsider.

Smoking bans are at worst minor infringements of liberty that yield major public health benefits. Bartenders surveyed just weeks after the California smoking ban went into effect reported that once-chronic coughs had disappeared -- not to mention that they were no longer exposed to dozens of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals on a daily basis. Kids in towns with strong anti-smoking regulations are less likely to think that it's a normal adult habit.

Cue the hospitality industry screaming that smoking bans will hurt -- even destroy -- local businesses. But the evidence isn't on the side of bar and restaurant owners, either. In fact, the report indicates that people were more likely to go out to bars and restaurants after cities and states enacted tough anti-smoking laws.

With smoking bans already in place in Montgomery, Prince George's, Talbot and Charles counties and scheduled to begin in full force in the District and other parts of Maryland, the days of emerging from your favorite dive smelling like you've spent an evening with Fidel Castro -- and wheezing like you've just bounded up a few flights of stairs -- will soon be over for most area residents. It's about time smoking bans became a public health standard across the rest of Virginia and Maryland.